WE ARE THE CHAMPIONS!

The song, ‘we are the champions’ by ‘queen’, played over and over the air in anticipation of bringing home a world cup has at last struck gold.

By Srian Obeyesekere

The song cannot be more appropriate for sri lanka than this 2014 t20 world cup as sri lanka buried a long running hoodoo; laying to rest their high riding opponents – one-day cricket’s strong arm india with consummate ease of a 6-wicket triumph in cricket’s t 20 world cup final at the dacca on bangladeshi soil.

If Kumar Sangakkara was India’s bogey man as the left hander shrugged off a lean run in the tournament to rise to the big occasion with a ‘Man of The Match’ unbeaten half century, captain Lasith Malinga for Dinesh Chandimal, produced the type of atom to sweep aside India. It was a fitting farewell for veterans Mahela Jayawardene and Kumar Sangakkara in their final T 20 appearance and Mahela’s post match words that ‘we did this for all Sri Lankans back home after 17 years’ echoed the Sri Lankan mood both among the exuberant young team and the cricket crazy fans back home whose great expectations had been fulfilled. After Mahela was joined by Kumar at 41 for two and anxious moments were negotiated to make it 65 before the former exited trying to force the Indian attack out, Sangakkara, who had come to his own smashing an on driven six and boundary, lived up to the big occasion as Sri Lanka completed the final rites in a flurry. An usually subdued Sangakkara (52 off 35 balls) sensing a historic win, was quick to remove his helmet and whip his bat and arms up on reaching his half century as Sri Lanka sped to victory with 13 balls to spare with Thisarra Perera in a run a ball 23, firing the winning boundary in an unbroken 56-run fifth wicket alliance.

MALINGA SPANK

It was a final well won for which the Sri Lankans fought hard with special mention of the golden hair tinted Malinga who deserves every praise for showing the spank of a captain in his first ever role as such as he led admirably with his world acclaimed side arm action that has seen him dubbed by experts as the most viable one-day bowler in the world. His impeccable bowling in the last few over’s decimated India stranding ‘Man of the Tournament’ mighty hitting Virat Kohli in his 70’s as he and Kulasekera kept the other batsmen glued to one end in the death overs.

LAST POST

The post-match mood in the Sri Lankan camp as mostly young teammates carried Mahela and Kumar in a final salute to their contribution to Sri Lanka cricket at that level as back home fire crackers heralded Sri Lanka’s crowning as the new champions. Understandably, as Mahela and Kumar put it ‘we are happy that we did this’ with the former patting incumbent chairman of selectors, Sanath Jayasuriya at the grounds and telling match compere Nasser Hussein, ‘They (Sanath) did it 18 years ago and we waited so long to tack back home another World Cup’ was the culmination of two great careers that exited T20 cricket on a high note.